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On Monday, a woman was found dead in a crashed car near the Pacific Coast Highway in L.A. in an apparent murder suicide. Police identified her as 34-year-old astrology influencer Danielle Ayoka, whose legal name is Danielle Cherakiyah Johnson. Based on what investigators have shared with the press, police believe Ayoka stabbed her partner to death early Monday morning and pushed her two daughters out of a moving car before crashing into a tree. In the days leading up to the tragedy, Ayoka — who’d accrued thousands of social-media followers for her astrological advice — posted a flood of bizarre tweets involving conspiracy theories and the apocalypse.
Here’s what we know about what happened.
Danielle Ayoka and her family were all found dead or injured the morning of the solar eclipse.
Around 4:30 a.m. Monday morning, police found an 8-month-old baby in the middle of the 405 Freeway, who died at the scene of major injuries. On the side of the road, officers reported finding a 9-year-old girl, also injured. Half an hour later, Ayoka was identified in the driver’s seat of a black SUV that had crashed into a tree about ten miles away. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Two hours later, a neighbor who’d heard Ayoka and her partner arguing the night before called 911 after seeing blood in the hallway and elevator of their apartment complex in Woodland Hills. According to the neighbor, paramedics on the phone sent him inside, where he found 29-year-old Jaelen Allen Chaney stabbed to death in the kitchen. Per the Los Angeles Times, police later found tarot cards and black feathers in the apartment.
Investigators reportedly pieced together a timeline after speaking with Ayoka and Chaney’s 9-year-old daughter, who survived the incident. Based on their account, Ayoka stabbed Chaney early Monday morning while he was on the couch. According to police, she tried to drag his body out of their apartment complex but ultimately left the body in the kitchen. She then drove out of the complex with her two children in the car, ramming through the gate, and slowed the car once she reached the 405, telling her older daughter to get out. When the 9-year-old, who was holding her baby sister in her arms, refused, she says Ayoka pushed her out of the moving vehicle in the middle of the freeway. Ayoka was then seen driving over 100 mph on the Pacific Coast Highway before police responded to reports of a crashed car near Vincent Street. They were able to identify her despite massive injuries and pronounced her dead at the scene.
Who is Danielle Ayoka?
Ayoka, whose Twitter bio describes her as a “recording artist,” “astrologer,” and “reiki master teacher,” has been posting under the handle MysticxLipstick since around 2015. She built a following posting zodiac descriptions, chart readings, and astrological advice and started offering self-help healing sessions and energy cleansings for a fee. In 2016, The Fader described her as a “skilled healer” known for her “insanely true” astrological insights, and Refinery29 published her star-guided tips for career success. As of this week, she had nearly 104,000 Twitter followers.
Leading up to her death, Ayoka’s Twitter feed was filled with apocalypse posts and warnings about the eclipse.
So far, the LAPD hasn’t shared much about Ayoka’s motive, but homicide supervisor Guy Golan told reporters that she and Chaney — a former Air Force technician who’d reportedly lived with her for over three years — didn’t have a history of domestic violence, police reports, or other signs of strife. Meanwhile, Ayoka’s Twitter profile shows a series of frenzied posts leading up to Monday’s total solar eclipse, which astrologists have claimed holds a lot of significance for zodiac signs. Last week, she retweeted a handful of antisemitic posts and conspiracy theories about COVID-19, including one that seems to have come from a QAnon account. On April 4, Johnson wrote that the impending eclipse would be “the epitome of spiritual warfare” and urged followers to “pick a side.” The next day, she wrote, “THE APOCALYPSE IS HERE.”
“The only witness we have for this crime now is the 9-year-old girl,” Golan said on Wednesday. “There’s just very little information we have, other than: there was a verbal altercation that turned violent and it ended in tragedy.”
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Danielle Cohen , 2024-04-11 21:40:45
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